The worst console spin-offs on iPhone and iPad

There's little in the mobile games industry as depressing or infuriating as a bad console spin-off. It's an insult on so many levels.

For one thing, a sloppily executed spin-off exploits the good faith of fans of the original IP, who are looking to continue their positive experience while on the move.

On another level, a lazy spin-off often comes across as a slap in the face to fans of mobile gaming. Being fobbed off with a second-rate cash-in tells you exactly what the publisher thinks of your chosen pastime. It thinks you're an undiscerning second-class gaming citizen.

Before we get too hot and bothered about mobile-unfriendly game makers, though, we're going to vent in the general direction of five slabs of smartphone gaming mediocrity operating under the cover of a highly esteemed name.

The recently released Borderlands Legends has the dubious distinction of being the inspiration behind this piece.

It's difficult to reconcile the ambitious, imaginative, and vast open-world console Borderlands games with the stodgy squad strategy game we were served up on iOS.

The concept of taking command of the four protagonists from the original and engaging in a spot of real-time tactical play is a sound one - after all, open-world first-person shooters aren't really the iPhone's forte.

The execution's all wrong, though, and what we've been handed on iOS is an unresponsive, limited, and ugly facsimile of the original universe.

Lumines Touch Fusion's failure is the least forgivable of all these console tie-in flops, even if it's probably not the worst game.

Why? Well, because block-dropping puzzlers can - and usually do - work so well on smartphones.

It had such brilliant source material to work from, too. Many view the original Lumines on PSP (it's even portable-ready!) as this generation's Tetris, mixing familiar colour-matching gameplay with a modern beat-matching mechanic.

A relatively stingy package and shoddy controls put paid to what should have been a classic on iPhone.

The Katamari franchise is evidence that you can have too much of a good thing in video games.

Initially considered a charming and innovative breath of fresh air, its collect-everything gameplay and quirky sense of humour entertained many a gamer.

Eventually, though, the series deteriorated and Katamari rolled into the unfortunate realm of the cynical cash-in.

Katamari Amore is, arguably, the culmination of this sad decline, with its forced 'zany' humour, painful controls, and underpopulated, bland environments. There's little amore for the original franchise - or its fans - on show here.